Lectures & Symposia

Francis G. Pileggi Distinguished Lecture in Law

We are honored to present the freePileggi lecture seriesto the Delaware Bench and Bar annually each fall. The Pileggi lecture series provides a unique and stimulating opportunity for crossover between academics and practitioners. This event is eagerly anticipated by the Delaware Bar, especially by the members of the bench on the Court of Chancery and on the Delaware Supreme Court.

We take great care in selecting the lecturer, and focus on their esteemed role as a leading voice in corporate law. Historically, the lecturer discusses unsettled and developing issues within their field.

The 34th Francis G. Pileggi Distinguished Lecture in Law:

“Why Should You Care About Puerto Rico?”

A Bird’s Eye View of the Financial Crisis and Restructuring

David Skeel is the S. Samuel Arsht Professor of Corporate Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School. He is author of True Paradox: How Christianity Makes Sense of Our Complex World (InterVarsity, 2014), The New Financial Deal: Understanding the Dodd-Frank Act and Its (Unintended) Consequences (Wiley, 2011); Icarus in the Boardroom: The Fundamental Flaws in Corporate America and Where They Came From (Oxford, 2005); Debt’s Dominion: A History of Bankruptcy Law in America (Princeton, 2001); and numerous articles on bankruptcy and financial distress, corporate law, Christianity and law, law and literature, and other topics. His commentary has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Weekly Standard, Books & Culture, and elsewhere. In August, 2016, he was appointed by President Obama to serve on the oversight board for Puerto Rico.

Professor Randall S. Thomas, from Vanderbilt University Law School, is the John S. Beasley II Chair in Law and Business, the Director of the Law & Business Program, and Professor of Management for the Owen Graduate School of Management. Professor Thomas is one of the most productive and thoughtful corporate and securities law scholars in the nation. His recent work “Is Delaware Retreating?” addresses issues such as hedge fund shareholder activism, executive compensation corporate voting, corporate litigation, shareholder voting, and mergers and acquisitions. Eleven of his papers have been selected by his peers as among the Ten Best Corporate and Securities articles in the year they were published by Corporate Practice Commentator. Professor Thomas joined the Vanderbilt law faculty in 2000 to develop and direct the Law and Business Program, having served previously for 10 years on the law faculty of the University of Iowa. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Michigan, Duke University, Harvard Law School, Boston University and the University of Washington. Prior to teaching law, Professor Thomas was in private practice for four years and was a law clerk for U.S. District Judge Charles Joiner of the Eastern District of Michigan. An acclaimed teacher, Professor Thomas teaches courses in the area of corporate law, including Corporations and Mergers and Acquisitions. Additionally, Professor Thomas has been a member of the Delaware bar since 1987.

The 32nd Francis G. Pileggi Distinguished Lecture in Law:

“Can General Counsels Be Independent: Resolving the Partner-Guardian Tension”

Ben W. Heineman, Jr. was GE’s Senior Vice President-General Counsel from 1987-2003, and then Senior Vice President for Law and Public Affairs from 2004 until his retirement at the end of 2005. He is currently Senior Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Program on the Legal Profession and its Program on Corporate Governance, Senior Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and Lecturer in Law at Yale Law School. A Rhodes Scholar, editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal and law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, Mr. Heineman was assistant secretary for policy at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare and practiced public interest law and constitutional law prior to his service at GE. He is a member of the American Philosophical Society, a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a former member of the National Academy of Science’s Committee on Science, Technology and Law. He is recipient of the American Lawyer magazine’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the Lifetime Achievement Award of Corporate Counsel magazine and the Lifetime Achievement Award of BOARD MEMBER magazine. He was named one of the top 50 Innovators in Law in the Past 50 Years by the AMERICAN LAWYER, one of America’s 100 most influential lawyers by the NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL, one of the 100 most influential individuals on business ethics by ETHISPHERE Magazine and one of the 100 most influential people in corporate governance by the National Association of Corporate Directors. He serves on the boards of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Central European University and Transparency International-USA. He is a graduate of Harvard College (BA-history), Oxford University (B.Litt—political sociology) and Yale Law School (JD).

Professor Heineman’s lecture will explore the contents of his new book, THE INSIDE COUNSEL REVOLUTION: RESOLVING THE PARTNER-GUARDIAN TENSION, which was published in the spring of 2016 by Ankerwycke, the trade imprint of the American Bar Association. Another recent book, HIGH PERFORMANCE WITH HIGH INTEGRITY, was published in June 2008 by the Harvard Business Press. He writes and lectures frequently on business, law, public policy and international affairs. He is also the author of books on British race relations and the American presidency.

The 31st Annual Pileggi Lecture:

“Shareholder Activism: The Triumph of Delaware’s Board-Centered Model and the New Role for the Board of Directors”

Professor Gordon’s Pileggi Lecture is entitled “Shareholder Activism: The Triumph of Delaware’s Board-Centered Model and the New Role for the Board of Directors.” He will argue that Delaware jurisprudence should embrace shareholder activism and reject the poison pill as a managerial defense measure against activist campaigns. Rather, the focus should be on broadening the role of directors as credible monitors and, if necessary, defenders of the firm’s business strategy and chosen time horizon.

Professor Jeffrey N. Gordon is the Richard Paul Richman Professor of Law at Columbia Law School and co-director of the Millstein Center for Global Markets and Corporate Ownership and the Richman Center for Business, Law and Public Policy. He is also a visiting professor at Oxford University and a Fellow of the European Corporate Governance Institute. He has written extensively on corporate law topics, including The Agency Costs of Agency Capitalism: Activist Investors and the Re-valuation of Governance Rights and co-authored The Law and Finance of Corporate Acquisitions and The Principles of Financial Regulation (forthcoming)

Ruby R. Vale Distinguished Scholar Lecture Series

Presented by the Institute of Delaware Corporate and Business Law; Sponsored by the Vale Foundation

The Ruby R. Vale lecture series is intended to bring judges, practitioners and other distinguished public servants to the law school to showcase their work and strengthen connections with the Delaware Law School community. It is designed to shine a spotlight on leaders within the Delaware bench and bar who are nationally known. The event is open to the law school community and the general public.

Great care was taken in selecting the panel members and focusing on their esteemed roles as leading voices in the legal community. This year the symposium will be on the following topic: “Law Professors as Expert Witnesses.”

The View from AcademiaProfessor Andrew L. Strauss, Widener Law Delaware (Dean-elect, University of Dayton Law School) Professor Arthur Laby, Rutgers-Camden Law School Professor Edward Rock, University of Pennsylvania Law School

The Ethical Perspective Professor Stephen Gillers, New York University Law School Lawrence J. Fox, Drinker, Biddle & Reath, Philadelphia, PA Professor Nancy Moore, Boston University Law School

The View from the Bench: This panel will examine the utility of expert testimony from law professors—where it has been helpful, where it has been less than helpful, where it might be useful but has not yet been presented, and where it is unwelcome.

The View from Trial Counsel: This panel will discuss how to evaluate whether, when, and how to use law professors as expert witnesses, and how to address the obvious problem of how not to invade the law-determining function of courts.

The View from Academia:This panel brings together the views of law school administrators and professors who have acted as expert witnesses on issues such as the appropriate place or extent, if any, of work as expert witnesses in relation to academic obligations and any other considerations relevant to the mission of the law school.

The Ethical Perspective: This panel will explore considerations of professional responsibility in relation to law professor service as an expert witness, such as: do the Rules of Professional Conduct apply to lawyers who work in this capacity, and if so, how and to what extent? Are there obligations of competence, diligence, the reasonableness of fees? Are there issues of conflict of interest, or obligations of candor to the tribunal, and if so, what are they?